BHUBANEWAR: Amid infiltration threat in view of the civil and political unrest in Bangladesh, Odisha Law Minister Prithviraj Harichandan on Saturday said illegal Bangladeshi immigrants living in the state will be identified and action taken against those found without any valid documents.”Identification of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants who have come on several occasions and settled here without any valid documents like visa and work permit will be conducted soon. After a thorough verification, action will be taken for repatriation of the immigrants,” he said. The law minister said after the military coup, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi directed the marine police and the Coast Guard to intensify patrolling along the coast. So far, there has been no report of any kind of intrusion into Odisha, Harichandan said. Although there has been no recent enumeration in the state, as per the information tabled in the Assembly last year, the state has as many as 1,57,432 Bangladeshi settlers in 11 districts and 3,740 infiltrators in seven districts. The highest 1,04,233 refugees are settled in Malkangiri district, followed by 46,848 in Nabarangpur, 4,653 in Khurda, 441 in Kendrapara, 379 in Jajpur, 304 in Rayagada, 200 in Bhadrak, 194 in Koraput, 90 in Kalahandi, 75 in Balasore and 15 in Angul. The Home department sources said the maximum 1,649 immigrants are in Kendrapara, 1,112 in Jagatsinghpur, 655 in Malkangiri, 199 in Bhadrak and 106 in Nabarangpur while only 17 and two infiltrators are in Khurda (Bhubaneswar) and Bargarh respectively. Among the immigrants, though 1,551 in Kendrapara were served the quit India notices in 2005, they are yet to be deported. The state has a 480-km long shoreline and coastal districts like Balasore, Bhadrak, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Ganjam and Puri are vulnerable to infiltration. There are also reports of Bangladeshi nationals having illegally settled in some of these coastal districts with the help of previous settlers over the years. Subsequently, they obtained voting rights and became vote banks of political parties.
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